Three bright planets stairstep up the evening sky for most of the month. Venus, the Evening Star, is the brightest, followed by Jupiter, then Mercury (see Featured Event). Scorpius arcs low across the south during the night, while the Summer Triangle—the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair—is in the east at nightfall and soars high overhead in the wee hours. The Big Dipper is high in the north at nightfall early in the month, but a little lower in the northwest by June’s end.
The full Moon of June is known as the Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon, or Honey Moon.
Perigee June 14
Apogee June 28
Moon phases are Central Time.
The brightest objects in the night sky team up early tomorrow: the Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Venus is the Morning Star, to the upper right of the Moon. Slightly fainter Jupiter is to the lower left of the Moon. You will need a clear horizon to spot it.
Venus is shining as the brilliant Morning Star now. It lines up close to the crescent Moon before dawn the next couple of days. Venus looks so bright in part because it’s blanketed by clouds that reflect most of the sunlight that strikes them, hiding the surface.
The Moon and the Seven Sisters huddle up in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. The Moon will “occult” some of the sisters, which are the brightest stars of the Pleiades star cluster. The stars form a tiny dipper at the shoulder of Taurus, the bull.
A great eagle soars high overhead on summer nights: the constellation Aquila. Its brightest star, Altair, forms the lower right point of the summer triangle. Look for the wide triangle of bright stars high in the east in the early evening.
The Moon is at last quarter at 7:39 p.m. CDT. The Moon lines up at a right angle to the line from Earth to the Sun, so sunlight illuminates half of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way.
A bright trio lines up low in the east at first light tomorrow. The brightest member is Venus, the Morning Star, with the star Aldebaran close to its upper right. The star cluster NGC 1647 is closer to the right of Venus, but you need binoculars to see it.
The planet Saturn appears near the Moon early tomorrow. It looks like a bright star with a hint of golden color just below the Moon at dawn. The planet fades from view as the sky brightens.
The Dumbbell Nebula, a colorful bubble of gas expelled by a dying star, is in Vulpecula, the fox, which is in the east at nightfall. The nebula is about halfway between Deneb and Altair, the stars that mark the bottom of the Summer Triangle.
The constellation Scutum poses to the upper left of teapot-shaped Sagittarius as night falls. Under dark skies, you can see that it is enwrapped in the hazy veil of the Milky Way.
Two bright cousins of Antares, the heart of the scorpion, skitter to its lower right this evening. Alpha and Beta Lupi, the brightest stars of Lupus, the wolf, belong to the same complex of stars and star-making ingredients that gave birth to Antares.
